


And I knew I'd Come Up Short

by Lismarine



Series: Dream SMP by Liz [2]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Author is Not a Clay | Dream Apologist (Video Blogging RPF), Bad Parent Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Betty Who, Dadza, Dream is a Magician, Gen, Happy Ending, I only now Kris, I'm Bad At Tagging, Mentioned Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Only one romance and it is canon, Phil has wings, Pirates, Sally the Salmon is a pirate, Tommy Apologist, fuck it tommy has wings too, lil bit of awesamdad, mamapuffy, roleplay characters only, song title pog
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-19 12:29:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29874702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lismarine/pseuds/Lismarine
Summary: (Title from song So Big, So Small)in which Puffy woudn't call herself a mother, but the change around her speaks for itself.
Relationships: Cara | CaptainPuffy & Clay | Dream, Cara | CaptainPuffy & Clay | Dream & Clay | Dream's Sister Drista, Cara | CaptainPuffy & Sam | Awesamdude, Jschlatt & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Wilbur Soot & Sally the Salmon, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Series: Dream SMP by Liz [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064054
Kudos: 2





	And I knew I'd Come Up Short

**Author's Note:**

> PROLOGUE (might be edited later when I start posting chapters)

And to think he killed someone... her own duckling... she really shouldn't be given the title of mother. Not anymore.

* * *

All Puffy knew was she needed to get back to the ship. And fast. She had to hide that kid somewhere and tell Sally to _book it._ If she took too long, he was going to die. She knew a deadly burn when she saw one. It would hurt to take care of that injury, and she would be taking the poor kid away from his hometown, into a pirate ship that as supposed to sail off to the continent within a few hours. Puffy could feel the boy shivering and hiccupping in silent pain while she held him against her white button-up shirt that was slowly but streadily turning red. She had to stop thinking about that kid, and focusing on losing those assholes after her. She never thought which hunts were such a gruesome thing in the islands, especially considering marshy islands are where the most witch knowledge comes from. No, no, no, focus. She was good at swordplay, sure, but not against five other people with bad guns. Her legs were already slightly burned with gunpowder, and then her heart skipped a bit when a different kind of bullet flew inches away from shattering one of her horns. That was the most ominous feeling a faun could get. She wondered what that kid looked like. She wondered if he had a family. Was she taking him from anyone? Another bullet flew right into her shoulder. Focus. Puffy ran to the side and knocked over a box of fruits, then climbed over to a rooftop with one injuried shoulder and burned legs. Great, Sally had two people to heal now!

The boy looked the worst. Puffy could still vividly feel that scorching heat just from standing near the event. He was alone when she found him, just studying magic on his own, and someone decided it was a matter worth holding up a gun. He tried to defend himself with a wall of blue fire, but ended up getting pushed facefirst into his own spell. And he would still be on fire, if Puffy didn't let go of her trading goods to run in with a bucketfull of water. Then she picked him up and started running, only to realize the real extent of the pickle this kid was in when she looked behind herself and realized there were FIVE people after them. What the hell? 

Back to the present, Puffy saw the sea from that rooftop, still running to gain distance, because the fruit didn't stall them much. They knew who she was by now. Puffy knew what she was going to do wasn't very nice, especially if he had a family. "Okay, hold onto me, kid. You're gonna have to trust me, you'll be okay." She said, and as the boy held onto her, she jumped off the roof and grabbed the ropes of her ship. They slid downwards way too fast, so he let go of her when hitting the wooden floor, and Puffy cut off the rope connecting them to the island with a swing of her sword.

"Hey, Sally, grocery shopping will have to wait! Went wrong!"  
"How wrong?" Asked a tan-skinned, teal-haired and prodigious teenager, walking upstairs to the deck after doing some cleaning and replenishing their freshwater stock. Unsuspecting, her voice was patient and even sweet.  
"There's people after me, we gotta go!" Puffy dashed to the wheel and opened one of the sails.  
"What- why??" Her voice was still patient, but seriously concerned.  
"That boy needs a healer, I'll explain later!" Puffy said, and Sally looked around, then ran up to the kid lying on the deck like a child-sized dirty rag. She didn't want to believe that was a child, she could barely see his face under all that blood and dead skin.

The treatment for those burns was painful, and they didn't have that much equipment in their tiny ship of a two-women crew, so the boy screamed a lot that afternoon.  
Sally was a wonderful healer, and the child was lucky enough to keep both his eyes working (Sally hoped), so Puffy was positive the boy would be healed in no time. But he was unconscious. Now, he needed the rest, of course, but they had to find out if that kid had a family, because it might be in danger and worried. Once they sailed the ship very far away from the shore, the island people gave up chasing, but if there was anyone on land she could help, Puffy _had_ to know or she wouldn't forgive herself. It all happened far too quickly, but from what Sally managed to grasp from her friend's messy, hurried explanation, this boy was no longer welcome in his hometown. Puffy had a habit of wanting to help everyone at once back then, and tough her swordswomanship was imaculate, she had the fatal flaw of not thinking it through. They were like sisters since the very start, but Sally sometimes judged Puffy's decisions as foolish. As the sun went down, the city's lights cascaded into the saltwater, and the boat floated kilometers from the shore. They had to leave, but now they were stuck here because of a poor child Puffy suddenly decided to drag around. 

Speaking of which, now that they were at a safe distance from the island, Puffy sat on a wooden hair, watching the child, his face covered in bandages, his (once ram-like?) ears slightly deformed. Pushed facefirst into blue fire... She was starting to understand Sally's use of the word "lucky." She wondered what the boy's name was. She wondered how long he could take to wake up. How long he could stay unconscious before Sally ran out of patience and left him in the village in danger. Puffy knew Sally wasn't as patient as she sounded... But she was willing to fight for this little guy. Her shoulder still hurt a bit, but now it was patched up, and it all felt fully worth it as the kid's chest slowly rose and fell in a steady, healing breath. It shook, and stopped, and Puffy stood up from her chair, and the boy sat up with a shout.

"AH!"  
"Oh, right." Puffy was relieved by the voice. It had been hours since she last heard it, and heard it for the first time, but for some reason, those whimpers and incoherent mumbles stuck to her head like chewing gum stuck to hair. She just couldn't get rid of it in her mind. "Hey... What's your name?" She asked in continuation, and had the decency to not touch the shaky kid. But then he raised his hands up to his face, fear flaring in his eyes, and she had to gently hold his hands down. He stared at her. A second... two seconds... three seconds... Might as well be hours, Puffy thought to herself. Sally walked in to see her friend kneeled down beside the bed, hands on the boy's hands.  
"C-Clay." He finally said, and Puffy remembered to give him a smile and try to keep him calm. she needed an answer, juust one more.  
"That's a really cool name, Clay! So... Do you want to go back to the village now? Do you have any family there?"

He shook his head.

Puffy and Sally exchanged a glance. Maybe they were both foolish, because there was no discussion at all about what to do next.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope ya liked! This connects to my "Yesterday They Were Brothers" fic, so you miht wanna check that.


End file.
